South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (1999, R)

Directed by Trey Parker

Written by Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and Pam Brady

With the voices of Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and Mary Kay Bergman

As Reviewed by James Brundage (MovieKritic2000)

Personally, I thought that one year of working in television could suck the brains out of anyone. After all, since South Park began to go on the air, the show has gotten progressively worse and worse. If it had a point to it, it didn't go about proving it. In fact, the only noticeable result I have seen is a rapid increase in small town kids calling other small town kids "you stupid Jew." Let's recap… that was supposed to be a backhanded swipe at the person who says it yet its become the "in" phrase.

So, seeing as the show "South Park" gave me no reason to believe that it was ever going to get a brain again, it came as a highly unexpected surprise that the movie had intelligence in abundance. Sure, they still have the fart jokes, they still have the anti-Semitic remarks. But they also have the most openly critical film towards the MPAA in ages.

South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut spends its time dealing with the aftermath of Stan, Cartman, Kenny, and Kyle all being introduced to profanity via a Terrance & Phillip movie (Trey Parker's and Matt Stone's fictitious counterparts). Coming out of the theatre, they use every single word they heard in the movie at every chance they get… and then they impress the other kids who also sneak in to see the movie. By the next Monday, everyone in school is cursing up a storm.

Stan's mother decides to go on a religious crusade to shift the blame, as they put it, onto anyone but them. Their choice happens to be Canada (despite the fact that her adopted son is Canadian), and they begin the hate group MAC: Mothers Against Canada. Soon, they have rallied the entire country into a feeding frenzy over its friend to the north, and they take Terrance and Phillip hostage, planning to execute them.

In response to this, the Canadians bomb the Baldwin residence.

Meanwhile, down in hell, where Kenny has gone after being killed by a doctor trying to save his life (appropriately voiced by George Clooney), Satan and Saddam Hussein are preparing for their domination of the world. They will come, according to prophecy, at the death of innocent ones at the hands of a foreign power. Hence, when Terrance and Phillip go, Satan and Saddam come.

The two are engaged in a torrid affair in which Saddam Hussein is only using Satan for the sex and for the influence he holds over him, while as Satan is being emotionally manipulated (there are about a million great touches in this scene, from a book entitled "Saddam Hussein is from Mars, Satan is from Venus" to a photo of Skeet Ulrich above their bed.).

Meanwhile, Stan, Kyle, and Cartman have begun la resistance (notice the connection to Les Miserables), and are fighting for the freedom of Terrance and Phillip and the end of the war between Canada and the United States. They recruit the help of an eloquent nerd and an atheist called "the Mole" to rescue Terrance and Phillip from certain death.

Oh, yeah, and Cartman has had a V-Chip implanted in his brain that gives him a nasty shock every time he curses.

South Park is a backhanded slap at about everything that is American but we won't admit to: natural prejudices, a hatred of profanity but an acceptance of violence, general ignorance towards anything and everything, and complete hypocrisy.

Before you burn my house, please remember that this is not you, just the country you live in.

South Park is only for those who are old enough to get this film. It isn't for the people who like the TV show, because the two are completely different. It isn't for those who think it'll be high intellectual art, because if you come in esoteric you'll just hate the film.

South Park is for intelligent people who are willing to accept crude humor and are open minded.

I know that’s sometimes a lot to ask, but, if you fit those requirements, go see it.